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Sunday, February 23, 2014

An
elder was asked by a certain soldier if God would forgive a sinner.

And
he said to him: Tell me, beloved, if your cloak is torn, will you throw it
away?

The
soldier replied and said: No. I will mend it and put it back on.

The
elder said to him: if you take care of your cloak, will God not be merciful to
His own image? (Extracted from The Wisdom of the Desert translated by
Thomas Merton)

We all know and are convinced that God
has no need of human beings.Yet because
of his merciful love, God created us out of nothingness so that we may share in
his happiness, not only in this life, but for all eternity.And because we are the work of God’s masterpiece
after his own image and likeness, we can always be sure of his love and mercy
to sustain us.

What does it mean to bear the image
of our Creator?

It means to become like him in every
way, so that our joy may be complete.

If you are wondering what God is
like and how you can become like him and be happy, make sure you spend some
time meditating on all of today’s Mass readings
where God himself gives us very clear images and instructions.

“Be
holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.”

How?

…You
shall not bear hatred for your brother or sister in your heart

…take
no revenge and cherish no grudge…

…love
your neighbor as yourself…

Jesus further instructs his
disciples (that means all of us who wish to become children of God) to go an
extra mile on this path of holiness and strive for perfection!

…offer no resistance to one who is
evil
…when someone strikes you…turn the other cheek as well
…if anyone wants your tunic, hand over your cloak as well
…should anyone press you into service for one mile, go for two miles
…to one who asks of you, give
…love your enemies
…pray for those who persecute you

Why?

Because the Lord himself is kind and merciful, as the psalmist tells us…

…He
pardons all your iniquities, heals all your ills

…He
redeems your life from destruction and crowns you with kindness and
compassion

…He
is merciful and gracious

…He
is slow to anger and abounding kindness

…He
does not deal with us according to our sins

We are the children of our heavenly
Father, are we not? Should we not be like him in whose image we were created?

God’s instructions for these
extraordinary acts of mercy and love are difficult but they are not impossible
to fulfill.As we press toward the goal
of perfection, let us remember that God gives us his Spirit to dwell in us,
making us temple of the Living God.(Second
reading)God also gives us all the graces
and examples needed to help us to become perfect just as our heavenly Father is perfect. Not that we are perfect or have already obtained this perfection, as St. Paul says, but we press on to make it own own, because Christ Jesus has made us his own. (Phil. 3:12) And whenever we
find that God’s command of perfect love is impossible to achieve, all we have to do is look
at the Cross of Jesus to learn this lesson of love and to find courage and strength to do so.

St. John the Evangelist tells us that God is
Love, who has shown his love to us by sending his Son as expiation for our
sins. And if God so loved us, we also must love one another.When we fulfill this great commandment of
love, God remains in us and his love is brought to perfection in us. (1 John
4:10-12)

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Sharing with you a wonderful little article about our monastery featured at the Dominicana blog! The article was written by one of our Dominican Friars, Brother Thomas Davenport, O.P. of the St. Joseph Province of the Order of Preachers.

It’s amazing what a bit of greenery can hide.

Most people, if asked where the most expensive office space
in the country was, would have a hard time believing it was outside of
New York City. They’d have an even harder time believing it when they
were actually in Menlo Park, CA, looking at the nondescript two story
suburban office complexes set back from Sand Hill Road by a beautiful,
but not particularly notable, array of unmanicured trees and shrubs.
Someone could soak in the flora every day on the way to work completely
oblivious to the fact that they were passing by the most powerful
collection of venture capital firms in the world. I know. I did.

On the other side of Menlo Park is another sleepy little
street, one that most people simply use as an outlet to escape gridlock
on the way to and from work. The most memorable breaks in the
residential flow of Oak Grove Avenue come from the beautiful little
Church of the Nativity and its school set on opposite sides of a plain
white wall enclosing a Catholic retreat center. Someone could pass by
every day and be oblivious to the presence of the oldest monastery of
Dominican Nuns on the West Coast behind a thin row of trees on the other
side of the road. I know. I did.

Founding Nuns of Corpus Christi Monastery

In the heart of Silicon Valley, the land of rapid
innovation and sleepless nights perfecting the next big idea, the nuns
of Corpus Christi Monastery keep a vigil of prayer and adoration rooted
in 800 years of tradition. This particular instantiation began in 1928
when eight Dominican nuns took up residence in their newly constructed
Gothic monastery, based on the design of their previous home in the
Bronx. Of course, the roots of their community stretch back much further
than New York.

Almost fifty years previous, four nuns had arrived in New
Jersey from Oullins, France, to establish the first American Dominican
monastery. From Oullins they brought not only the tradition of
cloistered Dominican life dating back to the efforts of St. Dominic
himself in Prouille, but also the more recently granted special
privilege of perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. This
privilege was extended not simply to their first American home, but to
all its foundations as well, and this life of prayer and devotion to the
Eucharist was a primary inspiration for the Dominican Friars of the
Province of the Holy Name and the Archbishop of San Francisco to try to
bring a group of cloistered nuns to the city.

It took decades of work, including living their first seven
years on the West Coast in the home of a San Francisco benefactor, and
in the end housing ordinances led them to settle 30 miles south of the
city amongst the majestic century-old oak trees of Menlo Park. They
brought with them expertise in the embroidery of vestments, the
illumination of parchments, and the baking of altar breads, but the
heart of their life was and is community and prayer, most especially a
love and devotion for Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

Over the years, this hidden life of prayer and adoration
has drawn to it a diverse community of sisters of many nationalities,
reflecting the diverse cultural heritage of the San Francisco Bay area
and beyond. They continue to live out their particular part of the
mission of the Order of Preachers by their lives of prayer,
contemplation, community, and study. Further they foster a greater love
of Our Lord by their example and prayer, inviting whoever might venture
behind the thin row of trees through the open doors of their chapel to
join them for a moment of adoration before the monstrance.

While countless aspiring entrepreneurs hope to make their
fortune by getting a few precious minutes to make their pitch in the
unassuming-looking office buildings on Sand Hill Road, across town on
Oak Grove Avenue anyone can join the the Dominican nuns of Corpus
Christi Monastery for a chance to speak their piece to, or simply be in
the presence of, the one true source of our salvation. I know. I did.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

The
Dayspring from on high has visited us and given light to those who lived in
darkness.

This,
then, is our feast, and we join in procession with lighted candles to reveal
the light that has shone upon us and the glory that is yet to come to us
through him.So let us hasten all
together to meet our God.

(St. Sophronius)

Let us rejoice, for today we are reminded again that God is present among us. He who is our light, our life and our hope has come into his holy temple to set his people free.

Our Mother Church also dedicated this day as a World Day
for Consecrated Life.Let us give thanks
to God for the gift of consecrated persons for the whole Church.

While it is true that within the unity of the
body of Christ, all baptized persons are called to reflect the splendor of the
light of Christ, the consecrated persons, by their profession of the
evangelical counsels, have allowed their whole being to be totally conformed to
Christ.Through them, Christ’s light and
presence are made visible and active in the world for the salvation of all
peoples…It is their duty to show that the Incarnate Son of God is the eschatological
goal towards which all things tend, the splendor before which every other light
pales, and the infinite beauty which alone can fully satisfy the human heart.
(Vita Consecrata)

As we give thanks to God for their selfless service to our Mother Church, we also entrust all consecrated
persons to the heart of Mary, our Mother, that she may obtain for them the
fullness of her Son’s divine light.

﻿

A visit with our Dominican Novice Brothers

Let us pray also that God may inspire many young peoples whom he calls to priesthood and consecrated life to follow him courageously and unreservedly.

If you who feel called to give your life to God’s service, our
Dominican Friars are hosting several Vocation Weekends that you may come to further discern your calling.If
you are living in the West Coast, there will be a Vocation Weekend which will start on
Friday, February 28th, at 4 p.m. and ends on Sunday, March 2.For more information visit their website at: http://www.opwest.org/index.php/vocation-weekends

About Me

The friars, sisters, and laity of the Order are to preach the name of our Lord Jesus Christ throughout the world; the nuns are to seek, ponder, and call upon him in solitude so that the word proceeding from the mouth of God may not return to him empty but may accomplish those things for which it was sent.
-Fundamental Constitution of the Nuns.-